Northern Ireland’s Finnebrogue Artisan has been named the Best Bacon in the PETA UK Food Awards, a leading UK showcase for vegan products.

The organisers highlighted the company’s Naked Without the Oink! Plant Based Bacon Rashers as proof that “no pig flesh is needed to make crispy, delicious bacon”. The bacon, produced at Finnebrogue’s £25 million for the production of plant-based foods, is now available from supermarkets or in Costa Coffee’s unique Vegan Bac’n Bap!

Finnebrogue Artisan, based in a state-of-the-art production complex outside Downpatrick, is part of Lynn’s Country Foods formed by the late Denis Lynn in 1985. It employs over 1,000 people in the town. The Finnebrogue Naked bacon is produced without nitrites or other chemicals.

PETA – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Foundation is a UK-based charity dedicated to establishing and protecting the rights of all animals. The awards support this strategic focus.

PETA said: “Consumers are waking up to the benefits of vegan eating – to improve their own health, protect the planet, and spare the other animals we share it with a life of suffering and a horrifying death. Nowadays, it’s hard to walk down the street without seeing an advert or chalkboard proudly showcasing the word “vegan”.

Now in its ninth year, PETA’s Vegan Food Awards highlight some of the “most delicious and exciting new vegan offerings in the last 12 months”.

PETA continues: “Like humans, other animals are capable of suffering and have interests in leading their own lives; therefore, they are not ours to use – for experimentation, food, clothing, entertainment or any other reason. PETA and our affiliates around the world educate policymakers and the public about cruelty to animals and promote an understanding of the right of all animals to be treated with respect.

PETA works through public education, research, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement and protest campaigns. PETA believes in non-violence and does not advocate or support actions in which anyone, human or non-human, is harmed. PETA is a charitable organisation that works to educate the public about the horrors of cruelty to animals through peaceful means.

Finnebrogue has also become a UK leader in sausages especially pork for supermarkets such as Marks and Spencer. It has developed innovative food in association with the prestigious food retailer.

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Costa:  Finnebrogue Artisan in Northern Ireland developed a vegan bacon bap with Costa Coffee

Crust & Crumb in Derrylin, county Fermanagh has won two major awards in the highly influential Bakery Industry Awards.

The family-owned company, Ireland’s largest manufacture of ambient, chilled and frozen commercial and gluten-free dough based products such as topped pizzas and pizza bases, was named Bakery Manufacturer of the Year 2021 and Bakery Exporter of the Year 2021 in the industry’s most important awards.

The company operates three state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in counties Fermanagh and Cavan and is a leading supplier of products to major supermarkets in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Other successful foods include flatbreads and tortillas.

The Bakery Industry judges were impressed by the company’s outstanding growth in turnover, investment – some £12 million over the past year – and “fantastic tasting products”.

They also noted how Crust & Crumb’s commitment to reducing food waste – building a facility at its Derrylin base to turn it into animal feed – had also built a new profitable income stream.

Crust & Crumb said: “What makes us different is our commitment to high quality gluten-free and vegan products. With dedicated free-from production lines, we ensure the highest quality free-from products that do not sacrifice the quality and taste of the original product.”

Crust & Crumb’s exports also grew by 25 percent last year to top £40 million. When the pandemic struck, the company adopted a new production ethos: “If we can’t go to our customers, we must show them why they should come to us.” The growth in total export revenues and the number of customers, that resulted from this strategy, really impressed the judges.

Crust and Crumb specialises in creating fresh prepared foods in partnership with leading retail and food service customers in the UK, Ireland and around the world.

The Bakery Industry Awards are organised by British Baker publication and digital information service and focus on the people, products, and businesses at the heart of the industry.

It spans the whole sector from plant, craft, and in-store bakeries to ingredients and equipment suppliers as well as associated businesses like coffee shops and food service outlets.

We’re delighted to have launched an imaginative and extensive marketing campaign – ‘Our Food. Power of Good’, in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to increase awareness among local people of the premium quality, nutritional value and safety of food and drink being produced here.

The marketing campaign, announced today, will centre on Northern Ireland’s unique food and drink proposition – the greatness and goodness that comes from our size and interconnectedness.

DAERA Minister Edwin Poots who was a key note speaker at the launch event said: “The ‘Our Food. Power of Good’ campaign, aims to energize and galvanize all aspects of our vibrant agri-food industry, and promote the good of the industry, our quality produce, and our sustainability in terms of production and the reputation of the food that is produced on local farms”.

Michele Shirlow stated that the campaign, will seek “To unite, to delight, to inspire and  to educate. In promoting the quality of our food and drink produce, we are encouraging people to shop local and thereby boost an industry which already contributes over £5 billion annually to the local economy and currently employs upwards of 100,000 people”.

“We believe that agri-food is positioned to make an even greater contribution, especially in rural communities where many of the companies are based, as Northern Ireland steadily recovers from Covid-19,” the Food NI Chief Executive added.

The campaign, influenced by the outstanding success of Year of Food and Drink in 2016, will be actioned across multiple channels including TV, radio, video-on-demand and social media and features producers from our grasslands and seas as well as those from the hospitality sector in support of the local industry.

The creativity and quality of Northern Ireland food and drink is showcased once again by the outstanding achievements of smaller producers in particular such as the UK Great Taste Awards, Blas na hEireann Irish National Food Awards, World Bread Awards, Food Manufacturing Excellence Awards, UK Bakery Awards, the UK Quality Food and Drink Awards, Irish  Quality Food and Drink Awards and World Whiskies Awards.

These high profile and quality focused awards show that food and drink experts worldwide are increasingly valuing our fabulous produce and keen to endorse what we have to offer in virtually every category.

Our Food. Power of Good aims to encourage many more consumers and businesses here To Source it. Savour it. Support it. Shop it.

The ‘Our Food. Power of Good’ marketing campaign starts 25^th October 2021 and runs to 31^st March 2022.

Applications are now open for attendance at Gifted, The Contemporary Craft & Design Fair 2021.

The fair will take place from 1st – 5th December 2021. 

Attendance at the event is through the small business programme so please ask your InvestNI client executive for more details to see if you are eligible to apply.

 The closing date for applications is Friday 29th October.

Mark Douglas from Dromore, County Down has been crowned Northern Ireland’s Bread Hero in the Tiptree World Bread Awards with Brook Food. 

Mark launched Krazi Baker 8 years ago after being inspired by food markets in continental Europe. He came to the realisation that no one was selling bread baked on-site. “You’d see every product under the sun, but never bread baked on-site. I was wondering how to do this and when I went back to work, the answer was staring me in the face – hotplates and soda bread.” says Mark.

Mark bakes on hotplates on site at markets, such as Newtownards, Comber and Carrickfergus and agri-food shows, such as The Balmoral Show, Castlewellan Show and The Antrim Garden Show. Customers wolf down his bakes, which include iconic items such as soda farls and potato bread, as fast as he can make them. His ethos is to bake bread by hand with no additives, preservatives or bread improvers… just natural bread. 

Unfortunately, Mark’s business, which also includes teaching at his ‘Krazi Soda School’, was hit hard when the restrictions of Covid halted markets, shows and baking classes. Not to be defeated, Mark established a home delivery service, with deliveries being made across Country Down in a pink Fiat 500. 

In normal times, the Tiptree World Bread Awards celebrate the bread; loaves from around the country would be delivered for assessment by a panel of esteemed judges. Building on the great success of last year, the Awards once again celebrated the UK’s Bread Heroes – the people behind the loaves: from farmers and millers, to bakers and educators. 

Hundreds of nominations were sent in from across the UK. ‘All the nominees in this year’s Awards truly deserve recognition for their generous, considerate and often altruistic initiatives to help others.’ said Stephen Hallam, Chairman of the Judges. 

Thirteen regional winners were selected by the judging panel. In addition to the regional winners, there were a selection of special awards: Brook Food Dream Team Award, KitchenAid Home Baker Hero, Shipton Mill Real Bread Hero, Tiptree Outstanding Achievement Award, Wright’s Flour Award for Innovation, Zeelandia Award for Sustainability.

One of the judges, Britt Box, She Who Bakes, said: “It has been another strange year and it is so lovely to read stories of the bread heroes who have carried on, diversified, given back and risen to the challenge (pun intended!). They are all an absolute credit to their communities.”

An exhibition of portraits by photographer Henry Kenyon of the Bread Heroes will be touring the UK.

International recognition has been awarded to The Toast Office in Belfast as it was crowned winner in the European Visual Identity category in the renowned Restaurant and Bar Design Awards. 

This places the brand amongst the most creative and influential restaurants and bars in the world, and pays testament to the unique design concept of the brand, conceived in Belfast by design studio Crown Creative.

Crown Creative is a specialist hospitality design studio, founded and managed by Limavady native Ryan Crown. Having garnered five years’ experience in New York working alongside some of the world’s best hospitality brands, including the Dead Rabbit and Marriott International, Ryan has returned home, and through concepts such as the Toast Office brings a new creative voice to hospitality in Northern Ireland.

Toast Office introduced a new snack concept to The Hatch in Cathedral Quarter. The hot Mac and Cheese, luxury snacks, were prepared in a modern kitchen with a hatch opening on to one of the oldest streets in the city’s Cathedral Quarter, the main hospitality hub.

The Restaurant & Bar Design Awards is the world’s leading independent competition dedicated to excellence in hospitality design and is a benchmark for the industry’s most creative and influential bars and restaurants.